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History in
a Pecan Shell
Gunter, Texas got off to a late start in the waning days of the
19th Century. The town was granted a post office in 1898 (name unknown)
but the big jump-start came with the arrival of the railroad four
years later.
The railroad was the St. Louis, San Francisco and Texas Railway
and the town was named after John Gunter, a surveyor and land owner
who donated land for the town.
The town had
a healthy population of 800 people in 1914. The populace was served
by 36 businesses, including the weekly Grayson County Advocate.
For reasons
not explained, the population declined to 500 for the year of 1924
when the town incorporated but the Great Depression didn’t hit Gunter
as hard as it did other towns – depleting the number of residents
to 475 for 1936.
Growth was slow over the next five decades and by 1991 Gunter had
926 people. It reached 1,000 sometime in the 1990s. It was 1,230
for the 2000 Census.
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